Group 1 - Private sector job creation turned positive in December with companies adding 41,000 hires, a reversal from the loss of 29,000 in November [2][4] - Payroll growth was entirely in services industries, with education and health-related fields adding 39,000 jobs and leisure and hospitality contributing 24,000 [3] - Nearly all job gains came from companies employing fewer than 500 workers, while larger firms added only 2,000 jobs [4] Group 2 - Wage gains remained tempered, with those staying in their jobs seeing an average annual increase of 4.4%, while job changers saw gains of 6.6% [5] - Economists expect 73,000 new jobs for the month of December, with the unemployment rate projected to edge down to 4.5% [6]